Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
specii c kinds of activity (Maskell et al.,
1998). In many small steps, distinctive and resil-
ient institutional combinations are being established along national, regional or local
lines (Hall and Soskice, 2001; Lundvall and Maskell, 2000; Whitley, 1995, 1999). The
national, regional and local scale will typically display only partially overlapping insti-
tutional repertoires, but the general process of alignment over time between institutional
set-up and economic structure is equally important at each scale (Gertler, 2001).
An interesting aspect of institutions in general is that they tend to work by limiting or
even preventing the exploration of alternative possibilities (Loasby, 2000). A historically
evolved institutional repertoire can thus sometimes lead whole countries, regions or cities
into specii c, initially successful, ways of doing things that later external events convert
into shackles that inhibit or block further progress (Elbaum and Lazonick, 1986). At this
aggregate level competition is not to be relied on to ensure rejuvenation. Some nations,
regions or cities instead depopulate or accept, however reluctantly, a continuous decline
in investment levels, consumption and standards of living. Others, however, acknowledge
that some collective action is required and struggle to develop deliberate policies often
aimed at emulating the institutional structure of more successful peers (Czarniawska and
Joerges, 1996). Many studies have shown how new ideas, organizational forms or legisla-
tive practices travel across space while undergoing modii cations or 'translations' to i t
the new setting (Czarniawska and Joerges, 1996; Scott, 2003). Investments in increased
mobility or extending relational systems might make ideas travel more readily, but the
crucial point is the extent to which such alien ideas can be absorbed into the national,
regional or local institutional setup and, by becoming part thereof, revitalize it and help
break the lock-in.
It should be admitted straight away that we know only a little about what determines
institutional absorptive capacity and why the institutional set-up of nations, regions or
cities on the downhill slope sometimes remains unaf ected through extended periods in
spite of seemingly ini nite opportunities for external inspiration from more successful
peers. In particular, the literature of ers limited insight into precisely
how
to import unfa-
miliar institutions that are deemed to be superior.
There are probably several reasons for this lacuna, but the most obvious is, perhaps,
an inherent logical problem. Ingrained institutions, by dei nition, function behind the
back, so to speak, of the individual actor. They coni ne his or her actions by guiding
their mindset into certain ways of thinking. But if an institution makes certain actions
seem natural and self-evident for the individuals constrained by them, then how can
these same people, by an act of will, ever step outside an innate institution and change
it? Only recently have scholars in social science started to come to grips with the funda-
mental question of how obsolete but well-established institutions can intentionally be
transformed at the micro-level of individual action (see Schneiberg, 2007 for a review of
recent advances in this area).
A similar theoretical gap concerns the link connecting institutional change to broader
external events like major shifts in technologies or consumer needs. We are still mainly
in the dark when attempting to explain why cities, regions or nations sometimes suc-
cessfully manage to reinvent vital parts of their institutional structure to accommodate
external shocks, while sometimes they do not. Related to this is the issue of whether
radically new economic activities need radically new institutions, that emerge alongside
or instead of old institutions, while more incremental change in the economic activity
